I'm Russ Jones, Principal Search Scientist at Moz, and I am excited to announce a fantastic upgrade coming next month to one of the most important metrics Moz offers: Domain Authority.

Domain Authority has become the industry standard for measuring the strength of a domain relative to ranking. We recognize that stability plays an important role in making Domain Authority valuable to our customers, so we wanted to make sure that the new Domain Authority brought meaningful changes to the table.

What’s changing?

What follows is an account of some of the technical changes behind the new Domain Authority and why they matter.

The training set:

Historically, we’ve relied on training Domain Authority against an unmanipulated, large set of search results. In fact, this has been the standard methodology across our industry. But we have found a way to improve upon it fundamentally, from the ground up, making Domain Authority more reliable. In particular, the new Domain Authority is better at understanding sites which don't rank for any keywords at all than it has in the past.

The training algorithm:

Rather than relying on a complex linear model, we’ve made the switch to a neural network. This offers several benefits including a much more nuanced model which can detect link manipulation.

The model factors:

We have greatly improved upon the ranking factors behind Domain Authority. In addition to looking at link counts, we’ve now been able to integrate our proprietary Spam Score and complex distributions of links based on quality and traffic, along with a bevy of other factors.

The backbone:

At the heart of Domain Authority is the industry's leading link index, our new Moz Link Explorer. With over 35 trillion links, our exceptional data turns the brilliant statistical work by Neil Martinsen-Burrell, Chas Williams, and so many more amazing Mozzers into a true industry leading standard.

What does this mean?

These fundamental improvements to Domain Authority will deliver a better, more trustworthy metric than ever before. We can remove spam, improve correlations, and, most importantly, update Domain Authority relative to all the changes that Google makes.

It means that you will see some changes to Domain Authority when the launch occurs. We staked the model to our existing Domain Authority which minimizes changes, but with all the improvements there will no doubt be some fluctuation in Domain Authority scores across the board.

What should we do?

Use DA as a relative metric, not an absolute one.

First, make sure that you use Domain Authority as a relative metric. Domain Authority is meaningless when it isn't compared to other sites. What matters isn't whether your site drops or increases — it's whether it drops or increases relative to your competitors. When we roll out the new Domain Authority, make sure you check your competitors' scores as well as your own, as they will likely fluctuate in a similar direction.

Know how to communicate changes with clients, colleagues, and stakeholders

Second, be prepared to communicate with your clients or webmasters about the changes and improvements to Domain Authority. While change is always disruptive, the new Domain Authority is better than ever and will allow them to make smarter decisions about search engine optimization strategies going forward.

Expect DA to keep pace with Google

Finally, expect that we will be continuing to improve Domain Authority. Just like Google makes hundreds of changes to their algorithm every year, we intend to make Domain Authority much more responsive to Google's changes. Even when Google makes fundamental algorithm updates like Penguin or Panda, you can feel confident that Moz's Domain Authority will be as relevant and useful as ever.

When is it happening?

We plan on rolling out the new Domain Authority on March 5th, 2019. We will have several more communications between now and then to help you and your clients best respond to the new Domain Authority, including a webinar on February 21st. We hope you’re as excited as we are and look forward to continuing to bring you the most reliable, cutting-edge metrics our industry has to offer.

Be sure to check out the resources we’ve prepared to help you acclimate to the change, including an educational whitepaper and a presentation you can download to share with your clients, team, and stakeholders:

I am Principal Search Scientist at Moz. I have 3 amazing daughters Claren, Aven and Ellis, an incomparable wife Morgan, and am a Christian, democrat nerd who often doesn't know when to shut his mouth :-)

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Comments
96

This is great news and in line with modern trends, and I look forward to seeing it implemented. I hate the thought (and the fact) that hard work through proper SEO tactics get neutralised by the 'fortunate few' who can achieve the same thing from buying/manipulating back links.

We are excited too. We have tested the model on a number of "known spammer" databases and we see drops in their Domain Authority across the board. However, this doesn't mean that some won't still find a way to rank. Google isn't perfect, much less Moz. This does represent a dramatic improvement, though, in how we go about formulating Domain Authority.

My issue at the moment is that clients will see their DA, something which I will take great pride in, and compare it to competitor sites who I know are using manipulative tactics and achieving a similar DA; the client's response to this will be "well why do you not just do what they're doing?". For me and many of my counterparts to now be able to look forward to this change is a great step forward.

On another note: I appreciate you saying Google and Moz aren't perfect however these are the factors that anyone working on SEO have to aspire towards, so from our point of view we're not looking for you to be perfect we just want to be singing from the same hymn sheet (which is something Moz help us to achieve) and your efforts to call websites out on spam will always be an advantage for "us".

Transparency is another factor which we don't get from Google. Whereas Moz are keen to provide us with the information we want, upfront, in plain English. I hope you see this for the compliment which is intended!

Thanks for keeping us in the loop! Great to get this info in advance so we can proactively discuss with clients & bosses. Are you planning on backdating these calculations at all? Or should we expect to see the same historic lines on DA graphs and then likely some change around 5 March.

I mainly ask because as well as comparing DA with competitors I know some people will be using improvement over time as a way to validate past effort.

Thanks for informing us before the update,
which doesn't happen in Google updates.

Russ, I have few questions for you:

1. As you said, "New Domain Authority is
better at understanding sites which don't rank for any keywords at all than
it has in the past." Suppose if my website has backlinks which do not
rank for any keywords, then there DA will be decreasing, so will there be a decrease in my website
DA too?

2. How are you going to check the Spammy links,
will it be based on the LINK TYPE or SPAM SCORE?

3. As you said,

"·
Known comment
spammers' DA drops on average 46%

·
Known domainer link
islands drop on average 97%

·
Known directory spam
networks drop on average 71%"

Suppose if a website has 1000 Linking domains and 10% of the links are directory spam network
or comment spammers or domainer link islands.

1. Suppose if my website has backlinks which do not rank for any keywords... will my DA decrease?

Your DA will only decrease if you have a disproportionate number of links from sites that get little to no traffic. Everything is relative. If you get links like the average site gets links, you are in the clear.

2. How are you going to check the Spammy links, will it be based on the LINK TYPE or SPAM SCORE?

This will be explained in more detail in a future article of mine, but there are tons of ways which we devalue domain authority. It is important to note that we don't necessarily devalue any particular LINK, rather we devalue the domain based on metrics, distributions, and patterns of links that are both identified directly in the variables we add to the model and that are discovered by the neural network.

3. 10% of the links are directory spam network...

Everything is relative. A site like that might see some decrease but, of course, they wouldn't lose all their Domain Authority. Moreover, Domain Authority is trained to predict rankings, so it won't arbitrarily drop a site's DA at the risk of lowering correlations. Thus, it may turn out that certain types of link schemes see improved DA if, in reality, those link schemes are getting past Google and causing higher rankings.

It would be great if you can share more info. about future updates after March 5. Will DA update on constant basis (like a live update) after March 5 or there will be periodic updates like once in a week/month?

We will be sharing more about the algorithm itself in the coming weeks. As for updates, there are a couple of types.

Retraining the Model: This could be fairly frequently. We wouldn't change the factors, but we would retrain so that we are modeling against Google's latest algorithms.Adding Features: This would be less frequent. We would add new features to the model that better improve either correlation or spam detection.Rewriting the Model: This is unlikely to happen for quite some time. There would need to be a change in the underlying statistical methods that is sufficiently better to justify such changes.

This is terrible news ... for web spammers. For the rest of us, this sounds like great news! I guess we'll all see when it rolls out. :) Good luck Moz. We're rooting for you, just as we're counting on you.

great to hear about your planed change for DA. I think it is a must to change the model as google is continuously changing its algorithms. Thanks for informing us in advance! I am excited to see which change it brings :).

Yeah, it was a hard decision. People rely on DA as a steady metric. If you make too many changes, you can't compare apples-to-apples when doing year over year or month over month comparisons, but at the same time if you don't make changes the scores become less relevant. I think we have struck a good balance.

Super exciting stuff here Russ, definitely looking forward to the launch in early March! My favorite part of the new update is the idea that "Just like Google makes hundreds of changes to their algorithm every year, we intend to make Domain Authority much more responsive to Google's changes". Thanks for sharing!

Great to hear about the update. In my opinion the more closely DA coressponds to the value accorded by Google the better it is. For example it has been observed that established websites can get their new pages to rank much faster then newer websites.

We are certainly concerned with issues like negative SEO. A site that has been hit by negative SEO very well might see a drop in Domain Authority, but this is likely a correction against the inflated Domain Authority they received when we assumed those negative links were actually good. The old model didn't distinguish between these bad and good links, so getting bad links meant your DA would increase. The new model should be fairly effective at merely ignoring bad links.

This was much awaited Update from MOZ. I hope after NEW DA update it improves my current DA. Though I am now all set to get amused. Thanks Russ for DA update. I will share this right away with all clients.

Below are some key points i noted from your blog.

Rolling out the new Domain Authority on March 5th, 2019

New Domain Authority is better at understanding sites which don't rank for any keywords at all than it has in the past.

Rather than relying on a complex linear model, we’ve made the switch to a neural network which can detect link manipulation.

Domain Authority will deliver a better, more trustworthy metric than ever before. We can remove spam, improve correlations, and, most importantly, update Domain Authority relative to all the changes that Google makes.

Yes, It's really good to know that more new developments are going to take place in this area. :-)

Waiting for the upcoming updates in the re-launch of New DA...

I have a doubt in this regard:

Since Blog comments and blog commenting is one of my favorite subjects, I do often update one of my posts (Power of Blog Comments) on this subject with the latest trends and experiences. Along with that, I do change the publishing date and add the current date as published date so that the post will appear on top on my website, will this in any way affect my present google rank (#1) and also will this affect on my DA?

I registered for the event and waiting for the D Day. :-)

Keep sharing.

With Best Regards

~ Philip

PS: I am so glad to say that I am sharing this news to my friends circles via my social media and also happy to note that this post is curated on the pages of BizSugar.

Is this update gone affect expired domains? We are in blogging business and write genuine contents for our readers. But we dont have control over the past links of domain that were made earlier. So my question is, will the da update base of the backlinks of domain or spam score or something else. Please guide.

I really appreciate that you understood the inaccuracy of your previous changes. This is a welcome move, but I’ve one question though.

I’ve purchased one expired domain last year – which is niche-specific and with clean backlinks and good metrics of course. Now, I’m running one informative blog on that domain (same niche).

I’m sharing my knowledge through different UNIQUE posts every week. And sometimes I give links back to sources as well. And within the same niche if someone wants to publish guest posts on my blog I accept and give backlinks too. I don’t find anything wrong with that.

I’m not doing any keyword research and not writing long contents as I don’t have much time to do so. (I’m writing content in my free time) This could be the reason why my traffic is low. However, I don’t really mind it as my bounce rate is less than 40% and I’m happy with it.

But you’ve stated that you will devalue domains which have minimum to no traffic. I assume that you’re pointing it as spam because of non-traffic sites passing links to some other sites.

Do you really think it is spam? There is a difference between sites that just want to pass links through different blackhat techniques and sites which create UNIQUE contents and pass links to resources and through guest posts. I don’t think it is reasonable enough for Moz to devalue the metrics based on low to no traffic. I would like to know your take on this.

Love the updates Moz is making to domain authority. I was feeling it was getting to be a bit out-dated as time went on, and am stoked that you guys are revamping it and taking into account more of the factors that Google values. Great to hear and looking forward to the launch!

Love the updates Moz is making to domain authority. I was feeling it was getting to be a bit out-dated as time went on, and am stoked that you guys are revamping it and taking into account more of the factors that Google values. Great to hear and looking forward to the launch!

Thanks Russ Jones for the update. Good to know that the MOZ team is consistently updating the features. The community loves to hear this.Updates such as this, will make the DA score more trustworthy for the SEO & Digital Marketing practitioners...

Very excited for this and all future updates to come. In order for an algorithm to stay relevant it should be updated with time and relative to Google's updates as well. This will definitely affect link spammers and show which links have a strong DA.

Great to see Moz is making efforts to keep DA closely aligned to how Google actually works, you'll never match them but keeping close works well for me.

On another point it would be great if the speed of Moz link data refreshing was quicker as when I build links for a new client there is a lag before I can see the that data within my Moz reports - I know that is a "big infrastructure ask" but if you don't ask you don't get!

Like others here I love Moz so anything you guys do is always cool by me!

This update will not affect PA, although we intend to launch a new PA shortly after the DA update. We are discussing the idea of a side-by-side comparison of the old and new DA but haven't yet made that call.

It certainly will be interesting to see the effect of this change on the overall DA rating of relative industries. Some industries have more spam than others. The systematic integration with Google updates also should be very helpful.

It is good to know that you are always recycling and reviewing this metric. I guess MOZ BAR will still work, will not it? It is what I use most as a relative metric when it comes to knowing if my competition has a lot of authority or not when it comes to positioning a posiblke article.

Interesting that DA is going to change, and how. It is good to see an update and a change for new years to come, however i still have to check how it is going to be done and affect some of my websites.

However I am taking in it as something more realistic and why not optimistic for websmasters and dedicated bloggers.

I agree with the statement that DA is not something to be taken as absolute, however it is difficult for many clients to really understand that as they are constantly in need of an absolute metric to regulate from. These changes will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

This is awesome news Moz! I often use Domain Authority to evaluate websites and link sources. Looking forward to see how the more "modern" DA update will affect analysis and website evaluation moving forward.

I always had a question to ask. I think the question is relevant here also. For Spam and poor quality links, Google has a disavow tool that helps webmaster to get rid of its negative effect.

Can't we have something of similar nature tool from Moz, especially since DA depends largely on back links? This should should allow webmaster to submit similar request even if one does not have a premium subscription.

I have one question though. In regards to changes in real time, how accurately will the new DA score mirror content marketing efforts, earned links, social signals, new relevant content added internally etc.?

It is awful news for web spammers. For the Branded companies likes us its is very useful, this sounds like incredible news! I guess we'll all observe when it takes off. Good job Moz. Really appreciate, similarly we're depending on you.

Hello! Hello from the Russian-speaking Internet! Your idea and development is not new. A few months ago, in Russia, the Yandex search engine (yandex.ru) canceled its TYC rating, and for its replacement, they launched the IKS rating (site quality index).

This event has greatly influenced link sellers in this region. I am very surprised, you do the same, change your rating to similar principles.

I'm having a considerable increase in Google's positioning and also increasing AD through a Content Marketing-based strategy. I use tools like Google Trends and MOZ daily. I am very satisfied. My site Gauchaweb is my main guinea pig.

Hello SEOs here, guys i have a question I watched one of Moz video on cross domain rel canonical, and Mr. Moz said it does passes authority to your site(i mean the main website), so i wanna ask can i use cross domain rel=canonical in Private Blog Network, so that i don't need to publish multiple content. Please reply if anyone can help!

It is great to have this news which determines our DA relatively with our competitors with a more reliable metric. More reliable the metric is, the more we understand our SERP rank which will be of much help. The spam links are now ignored by Google instead of being de-indexed. I hope this new metric take note of that too.

I'm glad to see Moz keeping pace with Google who we all know is continually developing their own algorithms in assessing authority (with the advent of EAT focus in Medic update as the obvious example). You've said it well though that at the end of the day it's just a number and needs to be considered in context with other available!